Billy Blatcher is the stage name for William Blatcher, an American film and voice actor. Blatcher is best known as the voice of Pete in the Mickey Mouse animated short films between 1932 and 1954.
Biography and personal life
Billy Blatcher was born on September 24, 1894.
Blatcher married actress Arlene H. Roberts in 1915. They had a common daughter, Barbra. The couple lived a long life together until Billy's death.
Career
Billy Blatcher's acting career on film and television screens lasted from the 1910s to the 1970s, including in several comedies Our Gang and The Three Puppets.
Blatcher's most prolific has become as a voice actor. His voice was deep, strong and loud baritone. Blatcher has voiced the voices of a wide variety of characters for Walt Disney's animation studios: Black Pete, Short Ghost, Big Bad Wolf in Three Little Pigs and other characters.
He auditioned to play the voice of one of the dwarfs in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). However, Walt Disney did not approve him for this role for fear that the public would recognize Blatcher from the short cartoons of the studio Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
His characteristic loud voice can be heard as the voice of Dom del Oro, the Indian god Yakki, in the 1939 animated series The Battle Legion of Zorro. He also voiced Pillow Man for Ub Iwerks in the 1935 animated short "Balloon Land". Blatcher also voiced the disciplinary violinist Father Oul Johnson for the 1936 Warner Brothers short I Love Sing, as well as the menacing spider in Bingo Crosbyan.
in 1939, Billy Blatcher and Pinto Colvig were hired to do the filmmaking dub of a character named Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. In the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons, he has voiced Spike the Bulldog, and in some cases even Tom and Jerry. At Warner Brothers, he worked on the voices of many characters, such as Chuck Jones's Daddy Bear in Three Bears, and the evil wolf in the 1944 animated film Red Rabbit.
During World War II, Billy Blatcher worked on the voice-over for the 1944 private military training film "Private Snafu" about poison gas warfare. Blatcher animated the poisonous Gas Cloud in this film. The actor also played characters in the Captain and Children cartoon series by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1950, Blatcher played several characters in the radio show "The Lone Ranger", and also appeared in the 27th episode of the television series of the same name.
In 1971, the famous actor played one of the last roles in his career. This was the role of Pappy Yokuma in the television adaptation of the play "Lil Abner". In 1971, he was hired to voice the character The Weed on the comedy and adventure show The Plastic Man, but soon had to give up due to an onset of illness.
Creation
Over the course of his 55-year career, Billy Blatcher has played and voiced characters in over 150 films, often uncredited. Here are some of them:
- "Sticky Business" (short film 1916) - the role of Professor Perkins;
- One is Too Much (short 1916) - the role of the unfortunate Border Line;
- Serenade (short film of 1916) - the role of Schmidt;
- Battle Royale (short 1916) - the role of Runt's grandfather;
- "The Brave" (short film of 1916) - the role of the sheriff;
- Aunt Bill (short 1916) - the role of the fake aunt;
- Hunger for Love (1919) - the role of Jakey;
- "The Shy Bigamist" (short film from 1920) - the role of Mr. Smith;
- Her Honor Mayor (1920) - the role of Buddy Martin;
- Turn Right (1922) - the role of Sammy Martin;
- Billy Jim (1922) - the role of Jimmy;
- "Corner" (1924) - the role of the groom;
- Romantic Road (1925) - the role of Patrick Pope;
- "Dude Cowboy" (1926) - the role of "Shorty" O'Day;
- One Hour of Love (1927) - the role of Walker;
- "Vodokh Wolves" (1927) - the role of Durkei "The Big Guy";
- Patent Leather Kid (1927) - Toddler fan;
- Two Girls Wanted (1927) - the role of Johnny;
- "Daredevil's Award" (1928) - the role of Thin;
- "Cowboy Kid" (1928) - the role of the deputy sheriff;
- "Terrible People" (1928) - the role of Prudi;
- Free Ankles (1930) - the role of Mr. Bury of Logan;
- "Show Girl in Hollywood" (1930) - the role of "the famous man who cleans names from the door";
- "Hunter for People" (1930) - dubbing beetles;
- "Dancing Sweets" (1930) - sounding the bud;
- Top Speed (1930) - the role of Ipps;
- The Texas Ranger (1931) - the role of Tabby;
- "Monkey Business" (1931) - the role of a man in a deck chair;
- "Secret Witness" (1931) - the voice of the radio announcer;
- Bridge's Wives (short 1932) - radio announcer;
- "Night World" (1932) - Patron of the night club;
- Make Me a Star (1932) - actor;
- "Whose hand?" (1932) - police radio dispatcher;
- Boiling Point (1932) - the role of Stubby and Kirk Hand;
- "Profession - Lady" (1933) - sounding for MacLuskey's keyhole;
- Anxiety Before Sleep (short 1933) - voice on the radio;
- First Review (short 1934) - Billy, Wally's father;
- The Lost City (1935 TV series) - the role of Gorzo;
- Divot Diggers (short 1936) - Bill the golfer;
- Lash of Penitentes (1936) - storytelling missionary;
- The Great Broadcast of 1937 (1936) - a man named Property;
- "Could this be Dixie?" (1936) John P. Smith Peachtree
- "Californian" (1937) - the role of a tax collector;
- "The Land of God and Man" (1937) - the role of Sandy Briggs;
- "Hide and Seek and Scream" (short film from 1938) - the voice of ghouls and ghosts;
- "Little Mexicali" (1938) - stagecoach driver;
- California Frontier (1938) - Bellhope;
- Las Vegas Nights (1941) - horse voice;
- "Reaching the Sun" (1941) - Freedom Bucha;
- Dumbo (1941) - the voice of a clown;
- The Dog Problem (1942) - the voice of Spike the Bulldog;
- Little Gravel Voice (1942) - the voice of the wolf;
- Chatterbox (1943) - voice of Black Jake;
- Rawhide Boss (1943) - Jed Bones;
- Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944) - the voice of a wolf;
- "Bodyguard" (1944) - voice of Spike and Tom;
- Dog Dog (1944) - voice of Spike and Tom;
- Lost in a Harem (1944) - Bobo's voice;
- "The Road to Utopia" (1945) - the voice of a bear;
- Mouse in Manhattan (1945) - Jerry's voice;
- Tee for Two (1945) - voice of Tom;
- Solid Serenade (1946) - the voice of Spike, Tom and the Assassin;
- "Fishin the Cat" (1947) - the voice of Spike's killer;
- "Blow in the back of the head" (1948) - the voice of the champion.
Death
The actor died on January 5, 1979 at the age of 84. It happened in Los Angeles, California. His wife Arlene and daughter Barbra survived him. Arlene died 13 years after Blatcher's death on July 3, 1992, at the age of 99.
